Pitching Notes: Wood, Brewers, Braves, Astros

Free agent left-hander Travis Wood worked almost exclusively out of the Cubs’ bullpen over the previous two seasons, but he could return to the rotation with a new club in 2017. “Multiple teams” are offering Wood a chance to start, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link). Wood, who will turn 30 on Monday, combined for 133 starts with the Reds and Cubs from 2010-15 and registered a 4.19 ERA, 7.11 K/9 and 3.15 BB/9 in that 776-inning span. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported Friday that Wood could sign sometime this weekend.

More pitching-related notes:

Right-hander Chase Anderson and his representatives don’t expect to avoid arbitration with the Brewers, who are employing a file-and-trial approach, a source told Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The two sides are set to argue their cases sometime before Feb. 14, which would be the Brewers’ first arbitration hearing since 2012. Anderson, who’s arbitration eligible for the first time, is seeking $2.85MM as his 2017 salary, while the Brewers have offered $2.45MM (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected a $3.1MM award entering the offseason). The 29-year-old is coming off a season in which he amassed 151 2/3 innings, totaled nine wins and recorded a 4.39 ERA – the three statistics arbitrators examine when dealing with starting pitchers.

The Braves are loaded with bullpen options going into the spring, opines MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, who expects there to be plenty of “buzz” centering on left-handed prospect A.J. Minter. A second-round pick in 2015 (a few months after he underwent Tommy John surgery), the hard-throwing Minter received his first professional action last season and laid waste to hitters at both the Single-A and Double-A levels.

David Laurila of FanGraphs had a lengthy, pitching-focused chat with Astros assistant general manager Mike Elias. The two discussed the value of in-person scouting, the Astros’ curveball usage and the risk associated with drafting high school pitchers, among other subjects. On 6-foot-7 righty Forrest Whitley, whom the Astros selected 17th overall out of high school in last year’s draft, Elias observed: “When you see a kid that long and lean be as coordinated, and able to repeat his delivery as well as he was, at the age of 18… that’s a big reason we took him with our first pick. We were really impressed with how he coordinates himself when he’s going down the mound. And he goes down the mound pretty aggressively.”

I disagree with you. I’ve seen people say the depth to their system is unbelievable. I do agree prospects aren’t as sure as most people think but their prospects have much much more promise than all but one being mid to low tier guys.

Listened to the baseball America podcast on the braves system on a long drive. Basically they have a ton of risk among their pitching prospects in terms of the chance of each guy flaming out. A lot of control issues limit the upside of most of their guys to mid rotation like the previous comment says. If you think they can get it together, feel free to be more optimistic. Their position players are exciting though

I think the complete opposite is true of the Braves system. The position players are lacking. They have lots of depth in pitching. Not a ton of “can’t miss” prospects, but they have enough guys with good upside that some have to work out. Diversifying the boom/bust prospect risk, I like that strategy.

Anderson is interesting. He was 5-1 with a 3.02 ERA after the break though he rarely got much past the 5th inning. When he was good, he was really good though, In his 9 wins, his ERA was 1.38 and no-hit the Cubs of all teams through 7 innings.. If he ever becomes a little more efficient with his ;pitches, and a little more effective when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he might be more than a 5th starter.

Although, it’s a pretty small sample size, it truly does not take anyone scouting Minter very long to realize he is going to be pretty darn special!!

The way he is able to locate his mid to high 90’s fastball, just dotting that low and outside corner of the K zone, and the way he uses his impeccable command of his pitches to set up hitters is just down right filthy!! Not to mention, he also has an excellent wipe-out slider, that will ultimately rank as one of the nastiest pitches in the NL.

With his incredible fastball, slider combo, his command, and also with his good velocity aa a LHP, AJ Minter should be the Braves next long-term, All-Star caliber closer, but I am a bit worried about his health and injury concerns. Last season, the Braves did not use Minter at all on back to back nights. If not for that fact, and possibly to delay his service time, then he would break ST on the Braves roster. With that being the case, the Braves are going to have to work Minter a little harder this year, and starting him out at AAA should be to the benefit of both parties involved.

Either way though, I cannot wait to see him pitch at the big league level..He was simply making the minor leaguers he faced look ridiculous!! lol

Why would the braves trade an all star in the making? They’ve never done that! Look at the past years, they trade what they think won’t benefit them. Shelby Miller is no all star by the way. Craig Kimbrel was traded because they were starting to rebuild. Now, as they near contention, Minter will be a perfect addition to the ‘Pen.

I got a chance to watch AJ Minter last year. He guy has nasty stuff, good control, especially for a minor leaguer. I clocked him at around 92 MPH. Honestly, that’s a really good closer in the making. Looking forward to another year of Braves baseball. This year, I’m hoping to go see Kevin Matain, and then hopefully Kolby Allard. I’m not sold on Newcomb, control is the most important tool a pitcher can have, and he practically has none. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come up this season in September and then be traded in the offseason.

Here is an interesting article regarding Newcomb, to give some people more insight to his 2016 season

“Those folks would see the results that Newcomb had in 2016 as a disappointment, but a closer look at what he was doing would show some impressive growth. Newcomb was making adjustments on the fly in his delivery in order to make it more repeatable. He was also working to attack the zone low with his fastball and change early, using his excellent breaking pitches to put away hitters.

Newcomb shifted his stance on the rubber in July, and it was obvious that he took time to adjust to this. He looked much different on the last start of the month, July 30th. His previous five starts in the month had 21 2/3 innings with a 7.48 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, and 18/21 BB/K. If you take out those five starts from the season line, Newcomb’s season stat line would be a 3.19 ERA and 1.23 WHIP with just barely short of a 10 K/9 rate. That sort of season would have people drooling.”

Obviously that does not simply just discount his control problems, but he has shown some improvements after making several adjustments last season..He still has a ways to go, but it is definitely some progress..Not a lost season, like most think 2016 was..

Also by all reports Minter last hit 90-92, while occasionally hitting 94-95 on a consistent basis when he was in college working as a starter..Ever since he has transitioned to the pen full-time he has been clocked at 94-96 consistently, while rearing back on occassions to hit 98-99 when it is needed…That’s quite the discrepancy between 92. My only thinking is maybe he was working more with his cutter or 2-seamer that outing?? Idk..

But can we all agree that at some point, every player in baseball was a prospect? You guys make a point that not all of them pan out but you have a better opportunity of them panning out when you have the depth and the talent that our farm system has. As the number one farm system, they expect our prospects to become good players one day